"Harry, hold still!" Severus said, chuckling slightly. "I don't understand why you want to wear this. Halloween is tomorrow," he grumbled.

"I like it! I'mma doggy!" Harry exclaimed, shaking the tail that was attached to his pants happily. "I hate makeup," Severus mumbled as he tried his hardest to do 'puppy' makeup.

"What are you gonna be?" Harry scrunched his nose as Severus drew small dots on Harry's face. "I'll be a bat."

"And Moony?!"

"I don't know. 'Member, he is sick. He might not come." Harry frowned at that. It wouldn't be the same without Moony! Then again, it was his first real Halloween, so he couldn't complain. "I'll get him lots and lots and lots of coco then! He likes it, right?!"

"Yes, bambi. Coco is his favorite. What's your favorite, Harry?"

"Umm..." His nose scrunched up as he thought, shaking his tail once more. "Ooh! The peppy ones!"

"Peppermint?"

"Yeah! Those, with the coco around it!" Harry shouted. "Alright, bambi. You're doggy costume is done, so why don't you go surprise Moony, yeah?"

Harry's grin widened as he ran over to Remus, who was laying on the sofa, looking deathly ill and tired. "Moony! Lookit!" Harry exclaimed in a hushed tone, purposefully being careful about how loud he was. "I'm a doggy!"

"Very nice, Hare."

"I have a tail, too!"

"Adorable, Harry. Why don't you read a bit?" Remus asked. "I dunno... I'm still not good..."

"Well, that's how you learn. Go fetch your book, I'll help you," Remus replied. He had taken it upon himself to teach Harry to read and write, Severus helped whenever he could, but at the moment he was grading papers. Thankfully, it seemed Harry was a fast learner, because he had the alphabet down in a week and a half.

As he tried to sit, he winced slightly. "Damned problem," he mumbled under his breath, referring to the transformation that had taken place two nights ago that caused a few new gashes on his back. He had hid in one of the abandoned dungeons, and because of the Wolfsbane potion, he slept through the night somewhat peacefully.

"Will you help me?" Harry asked quietly. He climbed on the couch next to Remus, who moved to a sitting position. "You know I will, Hare. What book did you grab?"

"The bear one. I like Goldy, and the little bear," Harry said. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. She's lonely, and then the bears take her with 'em. Like Daddy and me." The explanation broke Remus' heart. He hated that his cub went through all of that alone, and where was he?! Hiding out in a stupid forest!

"Alright, Harry. What's this word?"

Harry looked at the first word, and he knew he knew the word, but it still confused him. He'd already read this book twice, shouldn't he know it by now?

"On... Onk... Unk..."

"Once..." Remus said gently after many failed attempts. "Once... uh... upon a t-time. I did it!"

"Yes, you did! Now go on, read the next one, Harry."

"Once upon a time... Goldy... locks went foe... fr... for! For a wall... wack... Moony, I don't know this one!"

"It's okay, sound it out. What does it start with?" Remus asked. And that's how they sat for the next hour, reading a few books, and Harry slowly learning with a smile on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright Harry, you ready to go?" Severus asked. Harry was practically jumping up and down from excitement. His first time trick or treating ever! "Okay. Do you have your bag? Are you going to be warm enough? Do you have-"

"Daddy! My hat!" Harry cried when he felt for his hat. His black hat with dog ears on it! "I have it, remember?" Remus replied, playfully putting the hat on Harry so it covered his eyes slightly. "Hey! Moony!"

"Yeah! Hey, Moony!" Severus mocked. "Anyway, we should be back by nine at the latest, but I'm hoping for around eight thirty. Give Remus a hug Harry, and we'll get going."

Harry hugged Remus tightly around the middle before gripping Severus' hand. "Buh-bye! I'll bring lots and lots and lots of coco!" Severus and Remus shared a look before the duo left, each noticing the hint of pure sadness in the others' eyes. Because while this was Harry's first Halloween, and he had no idea what today really was, they knew.

They knew that Harry's parents had died on this night, four years ago, and that this was the night when everything went to shit.

"Alright, honey let's get going, okay? We're going to Floo to Aberforth's pub, first, and then we'll Apparate to a Muggle neighborhood. If anyone asks, we live a little ways out, and you wanted to go trick or treating, okay?"

"Mmm-hmm! Can we go?! Can you... can you carry me while we Floo and 'Parrat?"

"Of course I will, bambi," Severus said as he leaned down and picked Harry up off the floor. "Okay, bambi. You ready to go?"

"Yep! Buy Moony! Love you!" Harry clamped his hand over his mouth once he realized how loud he said that and what exactly he had just said. "Oops..."

"Oh, don't worry. I love you, too, Harry. Now go have fun."

"Aberforth's pub!" Severus shouted after throwing powder into the fire.

"Alright, Harry, so what you do is go up to the door and knock, okay?" Severus explained. More younger kids were out, considering it was only seven thirty and not that dark out. "Daddy... will you come up with me? Please?"

"Okay." Harry gripped Severus' hand tightly and walked slowly to the door. He looked up at Severus for conformation. "Go ahead. Knock."

Hesitantly, Harry lightly knocked on the door. A older looking woman with long silver hair opened the door. "Aww! Aren't you just the cutest thing!" she exclaimed. "Alrighty dear, you can have two." She held out a bowl, and Harry looked at her in awe. "Two?!"

"Yep. Any two you want."

Slowly, Harry reached out and grabbed two candies with colorful wrappers. "Thank you, miss."

"No problem." Harry grabbed Severus' hand again and they walked back to the pavement. "She gave me two, Daddy! Two! And I got to choose them!"

"She was very nice, wasn't she? Want to keep going?"

And so they did for the next hour until Harry's bag was filled to the brim with sweets of all sorts. Many mothers and elderly women commented on his costume, saying how cute he was and how nice of a costume he had, and were amazed at his almost perfect manners, saying thank you each time without being prompted.

"Alright, Harry, let's go. It's getting dark out."

"Okay. Can I have some when we get home?"

"Sure, bambi."

They found a dark alleyway to Apparate in, and Floo'd back to Hogwarts where Remus was waiting. "Moony, Moony, look at all the stuff I got! I got gummies and coco and minty stuff and an apple and toffee and-" He was cut off by Severus, who insisted that they sort through it in the sitting room, to which Harry agreed, stating that was a brilliant idea.

"So I got thirty-two coco bars, eight smarties, five toffee things, what's this one, Remus?" Harry held up a brownish yellow candy with a clear wrapper. "This ones a butterscotch, Harry. You have a few more, over there."

"Okay... five butte'scotches. These ones... you said these ones were Maltesers, right Daddy?" He received a small nod, and continued to sort through. "twenty of those, thirteen jelly thingies... jelly babies... and that's it! Wait, no... two candy apples!"

"So you have... eighty-five! Merlin, that's a lot," Remus exclaimed, ignoring the question he had in mind.

Where did Harry learn to count?

"Alright, Harry, you can have two, and then you need to have a bath to get that makeup off," Severus said, chuckling, though he also wanted to know where Harry learned how to count. "Moony gets these ones, and Daddy gets these ones!" Harry exclaimed, handing both males a handful of candy each.

"Thank you very much."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Re?" Harry asked in the darkness. He could hear crying. "Moony?" He sat up and hugged Lily, noticing the empty spot next to him. "Y-Yes?" He heard and looked in the corner, where Remus was in a ball. Crying. "You're crying?"

"Go back to sleep."

"No. Why're you cryin'? Can I help?"

"No. Just go to sleep, Hare."

Harry did not 'just go to sleep'. He took Lily under his arm and slipped out of his bed to Severus' room. "Daddy?" he called out. "Hmm? Oh, yes Harry?"

"Remus is cryin' and I dunno what to do!" he exclaimed. "What?" Severus asked in disbelief. Remus Lupin, in his quarters, crying? "Are you sure?"

"Yeah! He's in da corner and he's cryin' and he told me to go to sleep. What's wrong with 'im?"

"Why don't I go see what's wrong, okay? You stay in here, okay?"

"But I wanna help!"

"I know, but it might be an adult thing. Or something private." Severus had a good idea of what was wrong. Halloween.

Harry wanted to dress up like Dudley had a few times, and who were they to completely ruin his week? So, Remus and him had agreed to tell Harry the full story when he was a bit older, so his day wasn't ruined. "Okay?"

"Fine," Harry huffed. "Don't worry. Try and go to sleep, 'kay?" Harry nodded, and Severus made the short walk to Harry's room. He knocked on the doorframe. "What do you want?" Remus mumbled.

"Harry woke me up. He's worried about you."

"Yeah? Well you can't help me. Just go to bed or something."

"What's wrong?"

"Why do you care?!" Remus snarled. Severus flinched at how un-Remus that was. "Do you need another potion? Your transformation was only three days ago-"

"This has nothing to do with the stupid transformation!"

"Then what's wrong?"

"Why do you care?!"

"Because. I thought we were friends now. I want to help," Severus said, though he was highly doubting his abilities to comfort Remus. He couldn't even comfort himself.

"Harry... he d-died. I was there and I couldn't move..."

"Remus-"

"He was screaming for me and I couldn't move! There were no spells on me. I just didn't. It was like I was frozen. You-Know-Who was killing my cub and I did nothing!"

"Remus, listen. You know that if anything ever happened to Harry you'd be the first person to do something about it. Harry's alive and safe and fine. A few hours ago, you two were eating candy and laughing."

"What if when he's older he just... Everyone expects him to be a savior! He's five years old and people are already planning his entire future," the werewolf cried. "I know. I know, but I'm not going to force or let Harry fight. If need be, we can flee, but he isn't back yet. When he comes back, maybe I can make a deal with him, since I'm a spy and everything I could talk to him. Otherwise, we'll flee. We'll escape, he'll go to another school or I'll teach him myself, or you could teach him."

"Do you really think You-Know-Who would be willing to spare Harry's life?!" Remus exclaimed, doubting that would ever happen. Severus hesitated before answering with a simple, "Yes, I think he would."

"Why?"

"The Dark Lord, while most likely insane, is also very intelligent. He would see that killing Harry would either rally up people for the Light faster than he can get his armies together, or people would run from him, make it easy for him to win. He would not risk the entire war, he's much smarter than that."

They sat in an awkward silence, save for Remus' quiet sobs, until Harry came running into the room. "Something wrong, Harry?"

"Nothin'!"

"Then why don't we get going to bed, okay? Remus, come on."

"Yeah Moony!" Harry exclaimed in agreement. "It'll make you feel better, and then you won't be sad. Why're you sad, Remus?"

"Sure. Yeah, let's go," Remus said, avoiding Harry's question about why he was sad. The - now trio - stood and made their way to Severus' room. Severus set Harry on the ground, and expected him to crawl into bed as usual, pausing when he did not, and instead stood at the foot of the bed and looked at the two adults. "Harry? Something wrong?"

"No."

"Then why aren't you coming?"

Harry started mumbling a reason and small instructions, and pretty soon, he was curled up on both their chest'. Severus and Remus were shoulder-to-shoulder, Harry snoring peacefully, and a deep blush residing on each of their faces.

"I... well... goodnight," Severus replied, completely and utterly embarrassed. Remus just looked at him and nodded. They both fell asleep thinking the same thing.

Goddammit it, Harry!